For Rob Friese, home has, and always will be,
the tiny town of Lebam, Wash., in the beautiful Willapa Valley in
Southwestern Washington State.

But the reminder of his home-away-from-home is the exit sign off
Interstate 90 that directs travelers to Cheney, Wash.

First as a student, then as a coach and now as a parent, those
miles have added up as Friese and his family have covered thousands
of miles in the last 25 years driving to "the other side of the
world" at Eastern Washington University.

"I see that exit to Cheney after that 6 1/2-hour drive and I
know I'm almost home,"

he said of his frequent trips to Cheney for either track and
field meets or to visit his children who now attend EWU.

"It's great living back in my hometown, but I'm always
excited to go back to my college home in Cheney. At times it does
feel like I'm going home when I'm headed that way."

Friese is one of 13 defensive backs on Eastern Washington
University's "100 for 100" All-Time Football Team. The squad
consists of 100 of the top players in school history to help
commemorate the upcoming 100th year of football at Eastern. The
"100 for 100" squad will be honored on Eastern Athletics Hall of
Fame Day on Sept. 27, 2008, in conjunction with EWU's Big Sky
Conference football game with Idaho State. Starting June 18, the
public is invited to vote on the top player at each position, with
results announced on Sept. 27.

The list of defensive backs includes three players --
Jackie Kellogg, Kurt Schulz and
Isaiah Trufant -- who have gone on to successful
professional careers, with Schulz, Maurice Perigo
and Mike Richter earning All-America honors. But
the ticket for the diminutive Friese came in the form of the great
respect he received by being named to the All-Time team selected by
Dick Zornes, who had 26 years of involvement with
the Eastern Football program (1963-67, 1971, 1979-98).

Zornes, a defensive back himself for the Eagles in the early
1960s, was selected to the "100 for 100" team via vote by the
Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame selection committee. Friese played
as a cornerback and punt returner for Zornes 20 years later. As
seniors, both were 5-foot-10 with Zornes weighing in at 195 pounds
and Friese 17 pounds lighter at 178.

"It was probably because he saw the similarities in me of
when he played at Eastern," said Friese of the respect he garnered
from Zornes.

"I'm not sure if it was the orneriness he saw in me, but
I think he played the same way with a lot of intensity and
toughness. We both relished being the underdog -- we didn't have a
lot of size but we were scrappy. And it sounded like we both liked
to have fun and enjoy ourselves away from football. Because of all
those similarities, we always got along pretty well.

The path Friese took to Eastern came as a result of a trip he and
his Willapa Valley High School classmates Matt and Mark Bannish
took when they were seniors and visited various colleges in
Washington. Together, they helped WVHS win three state titles
during their time there.

"I knew I wanted to go to an in-state school and get away,"
Friese explained.

"We even missed our senior trip so we could look at
schools."

Friese fell in love instantly with Cheney and Eastern. Despite the
6 1/2 hour drive, he knew he wanted to be a student there and
football wasn't even in the equation, especially since he was only
about 145 pounds and came from such a small school.

"For a guy from Lebam, Cheney was the other side of the
world," he said.

"But I wanted to expand my horizons and see what was out
there."

His buddies, although they were brothers, ended up at different
schools and played different sports. Matt Bannish went to Skagit
Valley Community College and played basketball at Seattle Pacific
University. Mark Bannish was a standout football player at Central.
All three would later return to Willapa Valley where they still
reside. Friese is principal and football coach at his high school
alma mater, Matt is a teacher there and Mark owns a painting
business.

At the time, Friese didn't expect to be a collegiate athlete.
But thanks to persistence and an Eastern shot putter from nearby
Naselle -- 1983 NCAA Division II champion Bruce
Anderson -- he did.

"Bruce kept telling them to take a look at me. Eventually
some other players just happened to drop off the roster and they
told me to come over. The rest was kind of history."

"It was tough my first year trying to prove myself," added
Friese, whose position coach was eventual Portland State and Boise
State head coach Pokey Allen, who later tragically
died of cancer.

"But Pokey loved me -- he liked a scrapper."

Friese lettered at Eastern from 1982-85, helping Eastern to a 9-3
record as a senior and the quarterfinal round of the NCAA
Championship Subdivision Playoffs. During a tumultuous time when
Eastern was justifying its existence at the NCAA Division I level
and seeking admission into the Big Sky Conference, he finished his
career with 169 tackles, nine interceptions, 16 passes broken up
and a 12.1 average per punt return in his career.

His 84-yard punt return for a touchdown in the
FCS playoffs in 1985 versus Northern Iowa still stands as the
longest in school history, and he had a 72-yarder for a TD earlier
that season versus Idaho.

Friese chooses education at
Eastern before embarking upon teaching, coaching and administrative
career . . .

Honors were
non-existent in those years for Eastern as the school played as an
independent. His honors would come later in education, a field he
didn't exactly expect to pursue when while he was in college.
"I wanted to go into sports medicine, but because of football I
couldn't get enough time in the training room as a student
assistant," he said.

Instead, he chose education, and became an
English major with a physical education minor. Friese received his
degree in 1986, then began a career in teaching, coaching and
administration that has been even more prosperous than his playing
career.

His first teaching and coaching position came at Ocosta High
School, then, in the 1990-91 school year, he returned to Willapa
Valley and the family ranch in Lebam. Friese's parents Skip and
Evelyn raise cattle on the ranch, and all four of their sons live
nearby. Since the population of Lebam is less than 200, the Friese
family is its patriarch family.

"Everybody still lives on the ranch -- we kind of have our
own little Ponderosa," said Friese, who spent much of his childhood
and summer breaks as a ranch hand feeding the cattle, bucking hay
and other farm chores.

"Dad lives in the center and the brothers live around
him. We each have our families there so it's kind of a neat
deal."

His brothers Ron and Skip Jr. are now foremen at the nearby
Weyerhaeuser plant, and his other brother, Jamey, helps clear roads
for logging trucks.

In 1993, Friese became head football coach at Willapa Valley and
helped the Vikings win WIAA State B titles in 1996 and 2001. His
teams have won seven league titles and he has a 115-41 record with
12 playoff appearance in his 15 seasons at the helm. Last season,
Willapa Valley was 8-3 and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

He has been honored as Washington State Coaches
Association District IV Football Coach of the Year and has earned
league coach of the year honors multiple times. For several years
he served as the WSCA west-side coordinator for the East-West
All-State football game, and once he was the winning head coach in
the B/A/AA game.

He has been honored as the Seattle Seahawks
Coach of the Week and has served on that NFL team's High School
Coaches Council. He has also served on the WIAA B Football Study
Committee.

As head coach of the girls track team, his
squads won 12 league titles. Three times his teams placed third in
the state, and once they finished fourth. He also served as an
assistant for the boys, which won the 2002 State B title and was
the runner-up the following season.

His honors didn't stop with athletics as he has
been principal at Willapa Valley since 1997. He won the Robert J.
Handy Administrator of the Year award in 2005 and has served as the
Washington Association of Secondary School Principals Small School
Representative. He has also served on the AWSP Certificate of
Academic Achievement Committee.

Since 1996, he has coached in or been a
spectator at the WIAA State Track and Field Championships that EWU
has hosted for the smaller schools in Washington. He knows
first-hand the impact that experience has had on the college
decisions those high school students make. About 1,000 athletes and
about 1,000 coaches and administrators attend the meet each year.

"When I was going to high school, I didn't know anything
about Eastern," he said.

"I hope the university understands how important that meet
is to these small-school kids. They get to experience campus life
at the State Track meet. They come back really impressed and it
gives them an idea of what the Eastern campus and community is
like.

"Once you become an administrator in a small school you do so
much counseling too," added Friese, who also works at WVHS with his
college buddy John Peterson.

"We like to think we've created a pipeline to Eastern."

Interestingly, Friese's son Shawn and Peterson's son Josh were
born on the same day -- March 6, 1986. John Peterson eventually
would coach both boys in basketball at Willapa Valley, and Josh is
joining Shawn as EWU students this fall.

All three children, including Eastern pole vaulter
Chelsi Friese, are all expected to be at Eastern this fall . .
.

Rob and his wife Lisa, who was a cheerleader at Eastern and
award-winning student in the physical education department, have
done their best to steer their children -- Shawn, Laura and Chelsi
-- to Cheney. All three experienced the State Track meet at
Eastern, and came away with such a positive experience that Shawn
and Chelsi attended EWU out of high school. Chelsi spent the
2007-08 school year competing in the pole vault for the Eagles, and
finished 11th indoors and fifth outdoors at the Big Sky Conference
Championships.

Laura started her education at Washington State University, but
is planning to transfer to Eastern this fall. "My own kids have
been there so many times because of State Track, I just think they
enjoy it."

Returning home to Lebam from college is a family reunion for the
Friese kids. Coupled with the children of his two sisters, Rob's
kids are a part of a group of 19 cousins, including 14 who live on
the ranch. "We can almost have a full football game with two
11-person teams," laughed Rob of his large family.

Heck, Rob's WVHS football team is a family reunion -- three of
his nephews will be on his team this fall. Add a few great
grandchildren of Skip and Evelyn, and there are plenty more
potential Eastern students to recruit to Cheney.

"I think they realize there is not a lot here for them once your
friends are gone and you're out of the high school scene," he said
of the lure of going away to college. "If you re a kid looking
for excitement, and if you aren't working here or hunting and
fishing, going to college is a great option."

Friese returned home as much as possible, but football at
Eastern was a year-around commitment. But one spring break, he
remembers that he didn't make Evelyn very happy.

"One spring break my mom wasn't real impressed," he recalled.
"I was headed home for spring break and never came home when I
said I would. I made it as far as Federal Way. I think I did make
it home eventually, but I kept calling and said I was going to take
one more day."

He recalls his relationship with Zornes very fondly and even has
picked up some coaching tips from the Eastern legend.

"He told you what he thought, but I didn't climb into a
shell," he said. "That was the way I was raised, so I knew I just
had to play harder. I took a lot of abuse, but you don't quit just
because of yelling.

"I even kept some of his cliches, the clean ones at least," he
said.

"I remember one time I came off the field he told me, `You
got beat like a drum.' When I came from Willapa Valley he told me I
knew less about football than anybody he knows.

"I would like to think I'm half as intelligent as he is," he
added.

"I did pick up a lot of things from my experience at Eastern
that I use now. It wasn't always offense and defense -- I knew at
Ocosta we couldn't run the `I' formation like we did at Eastern.
But I learned a lot about the other aspects of coaching and how to
deal with kids and motivate them. The things I learned were very
valuable."

Now, as he gets older, he understands the importance of remembering
the past and cherishing the memories. Two years ago, the 1985 Eagle
team he played on was inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of
Fame and he made the long drive from Lebam to celebrate with his
former teammates.

"When you are there playing you don't realize a lot of
things until later," he explained, bringing up a recent reunion
with former EWU teammate Frank Staudenraus. "Frank graduated from
high school just down the road from me. When I was planning to go
to Sacramento for the Big Sky Championships, somebody told me he
was living nearby in Folsom, Calif. Until I saw him, I never
realized he had 30 sacks and was our all-time sacks leader.

"It just shows what a small world it really is," he
added.

"It's neat to have my kids there and still keep in touch
with the Eastern family."